Egg

Egg, the online credit card company, has recently changed hands for the third time in less than six years after being purchased by The Barclays Group. Although the terms of the move were not disclosed the sum is likely to have been substantial. Egg currently has more than a million customers in the UK with credit balances totalling £2.3 billion. Barclays have purchased the credit card provider from the Citigroup who, in 2005, purchased it from prudential. Barclays is likely to integrate Egg accounts into its own and it is quite likely the familiar green and white logo may soon disappear.

Egg was launched in 1996 as the UK's first internet bank. The idea was there would be no physical high street bank branches and customers would predominately contact the lender through its website or its call centre. Egg's short history has been eventful, though, with numerous changes of ownership and two high profile scandals.

In 2008 Egg hit the headlines after it withdrew the credit cards of 161,000 it deemed to be an unacceptable high risk. The customers involved where given 35 days notice of the decision at which point their accounts were effectively closed down meaning they had to clear their outstanding balances or continue to make monthly payments, but could no longer use the card. Although Egg claimed the decision was to safeguard its business and reduce risk many customers were outraged. Many of those who had been branded “high risk” claimed they were actually excellent customers who paid their monthly bills on time and in full every month. Some alleged that Egg was, in fact, closing the accounts of older, more reliable cardholders and increasing the credit limits of younger, riskier cardholders. The decision proved to be a PR disaster for the company and the firm's boss, Ian Kerr, resigned shortly afterwards.

Later that same year Egg hit the headlines once more after it was fined £721,000 by The Financial Services Authority (FSA) regarding the sale of payment protection insurance. Payment protection insurance is a type of insurance designed to cover a borrower if they are unable to make monthly payments due to accident, sickness or redundancy. The cover has been under investigation since 2006; however, since it was discovered there was a widespread problem of mis-selling within the industry.

The FSA's report highlighted significant failings with Egg's approach to selling the payment protection cover finding the company had 'used inappropriate sales techniques to try and persuade customers to buy payment protection insurance on their credit card even when they had asserted they did not want the cover.' The FSA found failings with approximately 40% of all telephone sales of PPI that took place between January 2005 and December 2007. The FSA was particular critical as it found the company was training staff to continue to try and persuade customers to take out the payment protection cover using what it called 'objection handling.' This involved over-empathising positive features of the cover as well as offering the customer the chance to take up the cover and cancel it later if they did not want it. It also found that in a significant proportion of sales operators failed to get clear confirmation they were happy to hear only limited information regarding the payment protection cover. In some cases the FSA even found PPI had been added despite the fact the customer had clearly refused it. As a result of the FSA findings Egg stopped telephone sales of PPI and many unhappy customers came forward to make payment protection insurance claims. If you have been mis-sold a PPI policy on a credit card or a loan, mortgage or hire purchase agreement then you have the right to make a complaint. There is no limit to the number of claims you can make and you can even claim if your loan is paid off or you no longer use your credit card. We have already helped more than 60,000 customers make claims and work on a No Win No Fee* basis. To find out more call our customer service team on 0207 471 2000. Our average customer claim is £2,500 and many people receive their refunds in just 8 weeks.

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Further Reading

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